Nathan Damigo, one of the instigators of the racist rally in Charlottesville, spent his formative years in San Jose. (Photo via NoCARA)

One of the main organizers of the white supremacist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville this past weekend has roots in the South Bay.

Nathan Damigo—founder of white nationalist group Identity Evropa—is a former Marine, convicted felon and former San Jose resident whose father once worked for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

KQED this week ran a profile on the 31-year-old extremist, who uses protests like the one in Charlottesville as a way to recruit new members for his group. Damigo made headlines earlier this year after punching a woman in the face at the April 15 “Battle of Berkeley,” where white supremacists clashed with anti-racists and anti-fascists.

Media reports, research by the Southern Poverty Law Center and myriad interviews on right-wing platforms paint a chilling portrait of a racist reactionary who’s galvanizing a national anti-diversity movement.

Damigo—who was born in Maine, grew up in San Jose and moved to Stanislaus County for college—did not respond to San Jose Inside’s request for comment. But in interviews with other publications, he says it was in the South Bay—home to one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the nation—that he began developing notions of his own racial superiority. Being around other cultures made him uneasy, he told KQED.

“You’d go over to a friend’s house, or something like that, and everybody’s speaking a different language,” Damigo told an interviewer, “and you’re just sitting there awkwardly. There’s no connection there.”

In a Q&A with white supremacist website Amerika, he said he felt that minorities he knew rejected his ideas of “national pride and identity.”

“[E]ven as a child I noticed double standards,” Damigo said in 2016. “I found my friends shaped their political ideologies based on what was best for their racial and ethnic communities. I attempted in vain to instill in them a civic national pride and identity, only to be met with rejection. They were not interested in what was best for America, but only that of themselves. While this was never explicitly vocalized, it was the hidden lesson I learn[ed].”

Damigo spent his teenage years at the private Liberty Baptist School. In 2004, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, which deployed him to Iraq for two combat tours.

The violence of the Iraq War further cemented Damigo’s views on race, he told KQED. It also inflicted psychological trauma. KQED cites court records indicating that Damigo began suffering from of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after he returned home. Symptoms ranged form paranoia to flashbacks, outbursts and drug and alcohol abuse.

When Damigo robbed a taxi driver at gunpoint in 2007, he and his family called it another symptom of trauma. The ordeal was chronicled in an HBO documentary called Wartorn, which explored the lingering effects of trauma on military veterans.

The troubled veteran spent the next four years in prison poring over the writings of white supremacists, including Ku Klux Klan ringleader David Duke. Damigo, who was taught creationism at his deeply religious high school, also became fascinated by discredited racist eugenics theories, which, according to past interviews, he took as “scientific” evidence of non-white inferiority.

Upon his release, the newly branded ethno-nationalist founded Identity Evropa, which built up a following on college campuses.

Activists on the left have been keeping tabs on Damigo long before he punched the 19-year-old counter-protester in Berkeley. In December 2016, a group called Northern California Anti-Racist Action (NoCARA) published a lengthy blog post that mapped out Damigo’s path toward radicalization.

NoCARA’s account suggests that Damigo’s extremism traces back to his hyper-conservative upbringing. Damigo’s stepfather, retired Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy Michael Damigo, graduated from the conservative Bob Jones University and instilled in his family “the core values of the idyllic white American family,” the blog post reads.

“While Nathan Damigo’s white supremacist activism is seen by many as the emergency of a new and aberrant phenomenon, Damigo’s ideology is very much within a continuation and evolution of his and his family’s relationship to the structural white supremacy that underpins every facet of American society,” NoCARA wrote.

The blog references an article describing how Damigo’s stepdad was involved in a deadly confrontation in the line of duty. In 2010, the same year his son went to prison for armed robbery, the elder Damigo fatally shot an illegal cannabis farmer. The District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting justified self-defense. Damigo’s adopted father retired from the county in 2015.

Damigo’s mother, Charilyn Damigo, spent years after her son’s armed robbery advocating for trauma-afflicted veterans and criticizing the government for failing him. She was interviewed extensively as part of the HBO doc Wartorn and wrote about her son’s incarceration on a blog, where she solicited donations to send him gifts, including art supplies and an Xbox 360. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, her tireless campaign to help her son convinced the Marine Corps to release him on an other-than-honorable—as opposed to dishonorable—discharge. That allowed him to maintain access to public benefits from the federal Veterans Administration.

While his mom did what she could to shield Damigo from the consequences of his violence, he was already well on his way toward radicalization.

After the Charlottesville riots, one of the neo-Nazi attendees stepped down from his job at Top Dog in Berkeley after activists outed him. Another was disavowed by his father.

Yet even after all the publicity about the ex-felon’s foray into neo-Nazi identity politics, neither Damigo’s mom nor stepdad have publicly denounced their son’s activism. San Jose Inside reached out to Damigo’s parents, but has yet to hear back from them.

Damigo’s biological father, a University of Maine adjunct history professor named Peter Lodge, on the other hand, has condemned his estranged son’s words and actions. In an interview published Monday in his hometown newspaper, the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal, Lodge stressed that he “had little to do with Nathan's upbringing—he grew up in California, I lived in Maine.”

“I’m the polar opposite of my brother,” he told San Jose Inside via email on Tuesday, “as I think you can see from my blog.”

He said he’s not sure how much his parents know about Damigo’s alt-right advocacy. But he suspects that Damigo tells them a sanitized version of his activism.

On the day of the clashes between self-described “Unite the Right“ marchers and the people protesting them, Josh Damigo lamented about the violence.

“I’m so disappointed in people,” he wrote along with a link to a Vice News story about the rally. “It’s a heartbreak that just keeps happening.”

Regarding Damigo, the NoCARA blog post concluded: “Ultimately, it’s clear that Nathan Damigo, as a felon would not be able to lead his organization were it not for the emotional and financial support provided by his family. While the media continues its seemingly compulsive need to give Nathan a platform and to create hype around his activism as something novel, as this writing has detailed, his white supremacist ideology is directly informed by that of his family, protestant religious values, social environment, and institutions he’s been involved with such as the military and law enforcement.”

The violence at the Charlottesville rally, which left 32-year-old progressive activist Heather Heyer dead after a professed neo-Nazi plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, prompted a number of local vigils, including gatherings last weekend in San Jose and Mountain View. The South Bay events were among hundreds nationwide to denounce racism, which in Charlottesville was fueled by white supremacists protesting the removal of statues that celebrate figures of the pro-slavery Confederate states.

The Bay Area could be the next target for the so-called alt-right, with three major protests planned for San Francisco, Berkeley and Mountain View in the coming weeks. The one in Mountain View this coming Saturday comes in response to Google firing James Damore, who penned a controversial screed arguing against women’s biological fitness for some of the jobs men do. At least two counter protests are planned this weekend at the same location, Charleston Road in Mountain View.

In response to the events in Charlottesville and the nationwide uprising of hate groups and anti-diversity rhetoric, San Jose-based Islamic Networks Group (ING) has launched an initiative called Know Your Neighbor. The campaign, which is backed by a coalition of religious groups and grassroots activists, aims to promote pluralism.

“The name of the coalition is itself is a call to action,” ING spokesman Tim Brauhn wrote in an email Monday. “We must, simply, know our neighbors. When we refuse to reach out across lines of difference and isolate ourselves in our respective silos of race, class, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation, we give our own tacit acceptance to the viewpoints that let tragedies like the rally in Charlottesville unfold. We must remember core American principles of cooperation despite division, of commitment to the greater good, and of concern for the other.”

‘Unite the Right’ organizer Jason Kessler was reportedly an Obama supporter involved in the Occupy movement as recently as November 2016, before establishing his white supremacist group “Unity & Security for America” in January, 2017.

It was a “false flag” operation.

2, Michael Signer, Mayor of Charlottesville

Signer went to Princeton, attended law school at the University of Virginia and got a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, according to his personal website.

“Long involvement in Democratic politics”.

3. James Alex Fields, Jr.

“Samantha Bloom, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, repeatedly called police about her son, James Alex Fields Jr., in 2010 and 2011, telling officers he was on medication to control his temper, transcripts from 911 calls show.
. . .
Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, according to the teacher, Derek Weimer.”

Listen to the ritalin talking.

The story here, Jennifer, is not Trump racism. It is what the nihilist left and the progressive establishment have done to young white males in America.

White males are being pushed out of liberal arts colleges by radical feminists, and denied equal protection of the law by nasty, vicious, PRIVILEGED liberal academics like Stanford Law professor, Michele Dauber.

White males are portrayed as vicious animals, and after they are drugged up and denied a meaningful role in American society by people like Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, Michael Signer, Michele Dauber, Morris Dees, George Soros, etc. etc. , pretty soon young white males start acting like animals.

White right-wing racists right here in the South Bay,you betcha ! Yes my friends,while they are in fact a small minority (ironically) these inept,bigoted,trailer trash,reprehensible propaganda spewing imbeciles walk amongst us everyday. These people need to be identified & subjected to the same derision,disrespect & demonization that they demonstrate toward those whose race,religion,ethnicity,political beliefs or sexual orientation differs from their own. It should be clear to everyone by now that the Bubble is nothing more than an angry,spiteful & delusional hater of the majority of his neighbors,who needs to be repudiated at every opportunity. Just another typical Trump voter !

I think a map pointing out their homes & a bus tour (like those for Hollywood stars) would be preferable. Or we could just load them into boxcars,ship them to a remote hollow & gas them to death. We could do it quite economically,the only question would be how much would that hollow cost ? Whatever the cost it would be worth every penny to the real patriotic Americans who despise this despicable racist scum !

WOW, Jewish, but I guess you would know what gassing is all about. Ironic, you live in America, I assume respect the Constitution and yet, you’re the voice of reason. It’s a sad day and you’re a sad excuse for a person. You can respond back, I won’t answer, you’re like preaching to the choir.

Hitler used gas to exterminate those he believed to be sub-human scum & that’s an apt description of the way I feel about white trash bigots ! I figure if it was a good enough of a method for your hero to dispatch those he vehemently hated,it would be fitting for you haters to suffer a similar fate. If it was good enough for the goose (steppers) it should be good enough for the gander & less trouble than hunting geese (don’t need a dog & a license). As for “mass murder” 1) Your estimate of crowd size is a bigger joke than those of that pathological liar Trump. Mainstream Republicans are so marginalized that they can’t even get a candidate on the General Election ballot here & most of them rebuke you bigots. Face it there aren’t enough of you haters willing to show your faces in public here in the South Bay to fill a Utility Closet (your usual meeting place now that your mothers have found out what you’ve been up to). 2) I don’t believe that eradicating those mentally impaired morons who’ve embraced Nazi’s,the KKK,white supremacy,white separatism,bigotry & hatred constitutes murder. Let’s call it a public service or a much needed culling of the sick & twisted from our species necessary for it to continue to evolve (evolution). Or a new form of ethnic cleansing (ironically) if you prefer.

Liberals & progressives don’t turn the other cheek here in the Bay Area when bigotry & it’s violent adherents come to taunt us,we’re always ready to give them a hearty welcome. Outnumbered & unwanted hate groups can rest assured that if they’re looking for publicity & a confrontation the price they’ll pay if they come here will be significantly more that their pinheads can grasp. Keep in mind that after visiting Burlingame & San Jose even that idiot Trump is too smart (or afraid) to show his face anywhere in this vicinity again (& he has Secret Service protection). Hate free zone ! Mozel tov cocktails anyone ?

But why is it news? It’s news because it’s so rare. If it was a story about an Islamist involved with a killing it wouldn’t be unusual, since it isn’t a “Man Bites Dog” story. Happens all the time, in fact, so it’s not really news.

Likewise, this sentence (from the article): Being around people from other cultures made him uneasy, he told KQED.

Comments like that are routine in this country—among folks from non-white cultures. But we don’t read ‘Dog Bites Man’ news accounts when Un-White folks say they don’t want to be around Caucasians, because comments like that are fairly common.

By and large, conservatives are law abiding. It’s expected. And by the same Umm-m …token, “minorities” often aren’t law abiding. That’s also expected.

Keep that in mind when reading these stories. FINALLY! they’ve found a right winger who’s also a scofflaw. So of course it’s ‘news’!

D. Virginia Governor and Democrat Presidential Candidate-in-waiting Terry McAuliffe could hype identity politics and gain tons of valuable publicity among Democrat activists and establish his credentials as a “fighter against racism”.

I agree, this is a false flag operation. About 99.98% of conservatives would reject this guy as their spokesracist. So of course he’s portrayed as being that (and check out the pic of you-know-who in the background).

I have to confess that I really don’t know many “white supremacists” or “white nationalists”. At least, I don’t know anyone who self describes as “right wing”, “white nationalist”, or “white supremacist”.

Since you write about it authoritatively, I suspect that you know many more “white supremacists” or “white nationalists” than I do.

My impression is that the terms “right wing”, “white nationalist”, and “white supremacist” are constructs of the Left to stigmatize and diminish people that they hate. In other words, they are “shibboleths”: terms that identify the perspective of the person using the term rather than saying anything about the object of the term.

Could you provide some actual examples of people, preferably local people, self identifying in their own words as “right wing”, or “white nationalist”, or “white supremacist”?

No trickery, please. It would be UNFAIR to quote a person who is merely quoting that someone else called them a “white supremacist”. Primary, authentic, declarative quotes only.

The organizer was a false flag troll. Apparently, (there are precious few verifiable facts in this whole soap opera), the “organizer” pinned the tail on the donkey, and the “poor, uneducated, and easy to command”, vaccine and ritalin damaged, maleducated , underemployed, white male bitter clingers took it as their opportunity to earn the respect that the progressives bestow on “activists” organizing for “change”.

This was NOT an organic “right wing” event because people on “the right” don’t self describe as “right”.

This was the progressive left’s cartoon vision of how those awful “others” who are NOT progressives behave in the left’s morality plays.

Again, Jennifer. Name some names of LOCAL activists who SELF-IDENTIFY as “right wing”, “white supremacists”, or “white nationalists”. If there are any, they are so few and so marginalized that no one has ever seen of them or heard of them.

Leftists are proud to be called leftists and progressives. Calling someone a “white supremacist” or a “white nationalist” is going to get you a libel suit.

“UNITE THE RIGHT” is not an initiative of “the right”, whoever they are. It’s left-wing propaganda theatre.

It’s shocking to behold the groupthink mentality that takes hold of the media. We all have our own spin that we put on news events- the event itself is often seen as less important than the underlying conditions which brought it on. But it amazes me how universally and obediently the various branches of the media have decided to make this Charlottesville event all about the supposedly ominous threat that white supremacist groups pose to our country. To me it’s this subjugation of one’s own individual rationality to the values of political correctness that pose a greater threat.

I feel like I just read a Soviet dossier on a closely-surveilled dissident, one cobbled together by zealous state operatives without any concern for the credibility of sources or the ruination of innocents. Book three seats on the train to the gulag, we need room for parents.

For starters, the headline implies the rally was made deadly by the white supremacists when the evidence is exactly the opposite. Had an oppositional group, armed and intent on turning the rally into a violent riot, not shown up — or had the police kept them separate, there is no evidence there would’ve been any trouble.

Citing a KQED profile of Damigo, the Charlottesville rally was intended as another recruitment event; in other words, a perfectly lawful exercise of free speech.

The Southern Poverty Law Center might be considered a hate group (it finds hate only on the right) were it not for its real passion: fund-raising through fear-mongering and hyperbole. Its founder, Morris Dees, has left a trail of personal scandal while personally pocketing millions of donated dollars.

Damigo is quoted that when growing up in San Jose his friends who were minorities rejected his ideas of “national pride and identity.” For him to be pitching national pride and identity to non-whites contradicts the assertion that he was raised to be a white supremacist (as does the fact that his brother doesn’t share his views). Yet this evidence had no effect on the gross misrepresentation of his childhood upbringing and education (and the vilification of his parents).

Apparently, when it comes to the furtherance of their agenda, progressives will happily discount PTSD as a factor in the bizarre criminal act of a 21 year-old combat veteran in favor of indicting his parents for being white, Christian, connected with law enforcement, and supportive of him.

If there is anyone whose credibility deserves discounting it is a father who has had little to do with the upbringing of his sons, especially one with the chutzpah to exploit his son’s notoriety so he could boast about having spent his life trying to promote racial harmony — in that cauldron of racial instability, Maine.

The stated goal of the Northern California Anti-Racist Action is “Building Community Self-Defense Against White Supremacy and Fascism.” They claim to be anti-racist while targeting only one race. We seem to have raised a generation of cartoon characters.

I think I’m finally beginning to understand progressives. It’s not about standing for decency in pursuit of civility but creating demons in pursuit of power.

This is an awful story, but I’m struck with the difference in coverage between this incident and the murders of 5 police officers during the BLM protest in Dallas. In this incident, the hatred held by the event organizers is seen as the cause of the death of an innocent person. But, of course, BLM was blameless for the deaths of 5 innocent officers. Hate is hate, except in the eyes of hypocrites.

Really is a scary time in our country when people are calling for thought police and banning people from taking part of the one very unique thing about American rights, and that’s the right to say whatever stupid thing comes out of your mouth in public.

Playing right into this is “Nobody has any reasonable expectation of privacy while in public” I actually enjoy the racist shaming I’ve seen the last few weeks. To me, it’s as fair ball as a Nazi’s right to blather stupidity.

Again though, people are forgetting these rights exist. It’s a shame to see the country willing to give up freedom of speech to “silence Nazi’s”

Jennifer, as a journalist you should have a keen understanding on why this right exists. Without it, your articles would be subjected to approval by whatever government thought police exists, something that would have a detrimental effect on journalism as a whole.

Folks should really catch up on their history, read why the ACLU has defended Nazi’s, white supremacists, etc’s right to free speech.

Sal, while JW’s writings may not explicitly be about preaching ‘ethnic supremacy’ at the destruction/denigration of other groups, her writings certainly are anything but impartial. She’ll write a piece about the travails of illegal immigrants who are being deported, but ignore the very real, tangible and calculable harm illegal immigration and illegal aliens bring upon this country. She’ll call an illegal alien who crossed the border unlawfully a ‘law abiding undocumented immigrant’ if they’ve never been arrested for any other crime and ignore the very real felony the committed by coming here in that particular manner. She’ll describe as racist those who advocate for unbiased color-blind and consistent immigration enforcement and deportation, thereby denigrating people who are cognizant of the real, tangible and calculable harm brought upon this nation and its citizens by illegal aliens and decades of lax enforcement and who desire a consistent application of all laws.

JW/SJI will bemoan the lack of affordable housing while ignoring the fact that scarcity of housing is, in part, driven by the 120,000 illegal immigrants who live in the bay area.

JW/SJI will advocate for a $15/hr minimum wage law in San Jose (and presumably elsewhere) while ignoring the very real harm similar laws in Seattle have produced. And she will ignore the manner in which an excess of low-skilled labor in the form of illegal immigrants artificially drive down wages.

JW/SJI will bemoan the historic shortage of San Jose Police Officers and the concurrent rise of various crime rates in San Jose while owning NO responsibility whatsoever for the denigrating language toward law enforcement in her/their articles, the blatant falsehoods written and the shameless advocacy for San Jose’s Measure B.

And, all the while mysterious moderators at SJI have deleted comments posted by myself and many others who tried to offer countervailing views and facts contrary to their positions.

So, yes, truly free speech only works with accountability – the lack of which is apparent in this article and so many others.

If we start thinking it’s ok to erase history because of “Bad things” why don’t we get rid of Quetzalcoatl? It’s fairly well documented that Aztec and Mayan Priests performed human sacrifice to that god.

I suspect you were edumacated at a gov’t .edu factory, amirite? What else could explain your total misunderstanding of our Constitution and Bill of Rights?

You wrote that “the right to free speech only works with accountability.” I am truly shocked by that. Do you really believe that our right to free speech includes conditions like “accountability”?

If so, I suppose you’d be ready, willing and able to put yourself forth as the arbiter of what particular speech is “accountable” (And based on the evidence so far, only the speech of the “far right” is “accountable”.)

The media has turned lots of Americans like Sal into puppets who parrot errant nonsense like “accountability”. They were certainly not taught critical thinking. Or Civics, or what the Bill of Rights means, or why it was added to the Constitution.

Instead, they’ve all been prepped for their anti-American beliefs by the media collective. But first, the media had to ignore our founding legal documents, and ignite the current hatred of groups like Antifa.

With the assistance of the government’s .edu factories, that has been accomplished. The haters have no understanding of why people disagree with them for trying to attach conditions like “accountability” to our rights. Then, when rational folks disagree with their screwy demands, we’re labeled “racists”, and every other derogatory label they can think of (cf: Herb Waxman’s comments above).

Mr. Waxman’s rant is a perfect example of the hatred being parroted by a generatioin of uncritical thinkers. Today’s ‘liberals’ believe it’s A-OK for Herb to spew his hatred and venom at anyone he happens to disagree with. But they don’t see what normal folks do: that his labeling is based on psychological ‘projection’: imputing his own faults onto those he disagrees with.

Herb labels folks who aren’t from his tribe as inept, bigoted, trailer trash, reprehensible, propaganda spewing imbeciles, and he opines that they need to be identified & subjected to the same derision, disrespect & demonization that they demonstrate toward those whose race, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs, or sexual orientation differs from their own.

Sal and Herb see racists behind every tree, fence post, and bush—but only among conservatives. What they’re missing is the beam in their own eye, because they always excuse the rampant, endemic racism expressed by the Left. We know this because they never mention it—and there is a LOT to be deliberately ignored! It’s as if all racism occurs only on one side, while they are always 100.0% pure and innocent. But Leftists have shown through their words and actions that they’re racists through and through. There is far more overt racism among so-called liberals than among the more numerous conservatives.

(Disclaimer: I am a conservative. By that I mean that I view the original Constitution and Bill of Rights as superior to much of the political posturing that we’ve been saddled with since.)

If “racism” is wrong, then all racism is wrong. But when a (very rare) example like this putative example is discovered on the right, it turns into a feedng frenzy for folks like Herb, because it’s such a rare occurrence. Man bites dog, see?

For example, look at the way Islamists routinely describe Jews. Just today I read a comment written by a ‘gentleman of Middle Eastern descent’, who wrote (as if it was a matter of fact) that Jews are, in his words, “hook-nosed rats.” Sheesh!. But that kind of overt racism gets a free pass from Herb and Sal. And there is always a pile of of similar comments by ‘liberals’; just read some of the political threads on Yahoo! or YouTube. You’ll see.

The left’s festering, soul searing hatred is expressed in comment after comment, to the point that we’ve become numb to it—except on a rare occasion like this, when a right winger is labeled a “racist.”

But is he, really? I read the article and links, and that label seems to be the opinion of others, since the putative “racist’s” own words are missing. Furthermore, neither the writer nor anyone else has identified a single “white supremacist” in the Charlotte rally. You would think that if, as the title of the article states, a …White Supremacist Rally was held in Charlotte, that someone would have produced at least one white supremacist. Show me one. Just one. (With conclusive evidence, of course.)

Actually, it’s surprising that there are so very few racists among conservatives (and don’t confuse accusations of racism with the real thing; they’re not. Those accusations are mostly what used to be called ‘bearing false witness’: telling a lie as if it’s the truth.)

The typical American university is also infested with racists. But it’s risky for a columnist to point that out, since the same universities are also hotbeds of intolerance. So I don’t blame the writers of these articles for ignoring the stark contrast between the dearth of conservative racists, and the sizeable fraction of lefty racists. And columnists are only human; they want pay raises and promotions, too. And like them, I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receving end of the left’s insane hatred (I leave that to Smokey).

And hate crimes? The Left OWNS hate crimes, to the extent that they’re not even newsworthy any more. But when a truly isolated example like Brock Whats-his-name leaves a drunken bash with a willing and inebriated gal for a tumble in the hay, and they’re discovered il flagrante delicto.

But since she remembers nothing at all about it, she’s coached by her ‘sisters’ at the hospital (who weren’t there) about what ‘really’ happened—and predictably, the Left goes ballistic. Not because it’s another example of Racism on the Right, but because events like that are so very few and far between among conservatives. Man bites dog.

Neither Sal nor Herb will agree with this, because they exist in their own bubble of self-righteous hatred. But it’s amusing to watch them being played like string puppets by the media Narrative (AKA: The Big Lie).

They’ve been immersed in the Big Lie of “right wing racism” since they were tykes. But critical thinking is hard, so rather than do the heavy mental lifting required, they take the easy way out, just like most millennial media consumers: head-nodding along with the nightly news-babe in slack-jawed agreement.

But if they were the least bit objective, they could do a simple search and view the mountain of real world evidence, which shows the left’s endemic intolerance and racism. Then, if they were honest, they’d re-adjust their criticism to include Liberals.

Instead, they project their own faults onto their opponents. But lucky for them, they have their handy “Get Out Of Jail Free” card, which they’re always using—and it never expires.

Interesting that Nathan Damigo was charged with a ‘failure to disperse’ police order. This is the same charge used against civil rights demonstrators 50 years ago. And like theirs, will almost certainly be dismissed if contested.

Also curious: no postscript to the highly publicized punching of a female during the Berkeley protest. I’d expect Damigo would be facing multiple charges – unless his claim of self-defense was accurate.

More troubling than the demonstration is censorship. A fast food employee was fired for participating and Go Daddy ejected the Evropa website after an Orwellian interpretation of free speech.

Do you as the author also write the headline? Or is that applied by other hands? If so, whose hands?

I’m really interested in nailing down just who characterized this event as a “White Supremacist Rally”.

I want to see a quote like: “Self-described white supremacist leader, Billy Bob Clinton of rural Arkansas, issued a call today for all white supremacists to join him in a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. ‘I want every white supremacist to put on their white supremacist pants and go to our white supremacist rally where we will cheer about how supreme white people are’, said Clinton.”

Looks like 150 years is the agreed upon amount of time that must pass before it’s acceptable to trash the memory and honor of valiant soldiers who died fighting for a cause they believed in. It’s safe after a century and a half. There’s no one left alive who knew them directly, who can advocate for them. No brothers or sisters. No grieving mom and dad to confront. No children. No treasured friends who can stick up for the memory of the fallen ones. The coast is clear. Trash away, progressives.
150 years is what’s required. I wonder. In the year 2120 will there be a progressive plan to tear down the Vietnam War Memorial which they have decided was an unjust war, the participants of which should be forgotten in disgrace? And if so, will there be a group of “extremists” protesting that plan?
I sure hope so.
God bless them no matter what group they belong to.

I personally am a fan of the human race & “trust me” you’re so far behind decent people you may have dropped out already. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the stench surrounding you makes me want to retch & regurgitate repeatedly. Are you insinuating that MV may not be white enough for you,or are your “uptighty-whities” once again cutting off the flow of blood to your miniscule cranium ? You’re pretty long-winded considering the meager amount of intellect you constantly badger us with on this forum. Do all of us a favor & quit doing that one thing that annoys the majority of San Jose Inside readers about you the most – it’s called breathing ! Please stop !

Well, it appears that Mr. Waxman, apparently a posterboy for the hard left would prefer to engage in ad hominem attacks and goes a step further that, rather than engage in meaningful debate, he would prefer that those with differing or opposing points of view should simply die. What civility Mr Waxman may have cultivated for himself he seems to reserve solely for those who think in lockstep with him. His attitudes are EXACTLY those of the fascists he claims to oppose – namely that people who are different from him don’t enjoy the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to which he, himself, feels entitled. Clearly he doesn’t mind totalitarianism, so long as it is HIS preferred flavor of totalitarianism.

The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood, shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo, that a moment before was your best friends face, you’ll know what to do.–General George Patton

False equivalence and you know it. At Nuremberg, Nazis defended themselves on the basis of writing by Oliver Wendell Holmes. There is a difference between birth control, choice and active use of government to deprive people of their reproductive rights. As for the Alt-left of Soros, your bs conspiracy theories and your defense of Nazis and their ilk betray our true sentiments. And I submit, anyone who voted for the Fraud is a racists–and you cannot deny it. You knew who he was when you voted for him.

> At Nuremberg, Nazis defended themselves on the basis of writing by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Sorry, Rich. I was denied the richness and diversity of a public school education. What did Oliver Wendell Holmes write that Nazis cited in their defense?

> There is a difference between birth control, choice and active use of government to deprive people of their reproductive rights.

WHAT is the difference between “birth control” and “choice”?

When the U.S. government (Eisenhower administration) used American tax dollars to impose “population control” policies on places like Japan (yellow people) and India (brown people),
was that “choice”, cultural imperialism, or genocide?

Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as
…any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
. . .
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

I would like to know, Rich, what you have against Ash Kalra and Ro Khanna that would lead you to support policies that would deny their existence?

You know who’s mostly the enemy of black people right now? Other black people. Statistically, 93% of black murder victims are killed by… (drum roll please) OTHER BLACK PEOPLE. Of course, the reverse corollary is basically true. 83% of white murder victims are killed by… (another drum roll, if you will, good sir)… OTHER WHITE PEOPLE. How about rape victims? Want to guess what race ISN’T RAPING BLACK WOMEN? Whites. According to FBI crime data, from 2003 to 2008, on average each year, there were 22,534 reported incidents of black on white rape, 24,730 incidents of black on black rape and NO (that’s 0, as in not one single one) instances of white on black rape. Interestingly, in 2009, the year Obama took office, the FBI STOPPED releasing the full statistics. How about crimes of violence in general? Well, in 2012, blacks committed 560,600 acts of violence against white people whereas whites committed 99,403 acts of violence against blacks. This is data from the DOJ’s National Crime Victimization Survey. In other words, in 2012, blacks committed 83% of all interracial crime between blacks and whites.

Oh, and by the way, in instances of interracial violent crime between Blacks and Hispanics, Blacks are the attackers 82.5% of the time vs Hispanics being the attackers only 17.5% of the time. Using 2012/2013 crime statistics, and the demographic breakdowns of population for that time – 62.2% white, 17.1% hispanic and 13.2% black, one can calculate that a black is 27x more likely (that’s 2,700% more likely) to attack a white person and 8x (800%) more likely to attack an Hispanic than the otther way around. And, an Hispanic is 8x (800%) more likely to attack a White person than the other way around. Further, whites are commit crimes of violence against other whites 82.4% of the time.

Some other interesting statistics: From January to June 2008, in New York, 83% of all gun assailants were black according to victims and witnesses despite being on 24% of New York’s population, and, Blacks and Hispanics, in aggregate accounted for 98% of all gun assailants. Also, 98% of all muggins were the work of Blacks and Hispanics. This is according to New York’s police commissioner at the time.

The US Constitution defines treason as levying war against the government,hence every Confederate soldier as well as every political leader was a traitor. The Confederacy lost the Civil War & Lee & Davis et al should have been tried & then either shot or hung. Only losers build monuments honoring losers for being traitors to their country,or is there a monument somewhere honoring Julius & Ethel Rosenberg that needs to come down too ? These privileged white folks have ridden roughshod over everybody else for generations & have a lot of damn nerve complaining about their culture & heritage at this point. I guess it’s not fun being white anymore now that contrary to their own beliefs & actions everyone has equal rights today in America. Well that’s just too damn bad,so quit your pathetic whining because there’s nothing special about you ! Maybe the American Indians should march through the South with torches & baseball bats & tell these reprehensible racists to go back where they came from & reclaim their own culture. The sad fact is that the vast majority of those who these bigots so revile are much better human beings than the whole sorry lot of these repugnant,goose-stepping,cross-burning,psychopaths. It’s fitting that their hero Donald Trump is a combination of clueless,egotistical blowhard & fetid sack of excrement. They deserve each other ! At least we can sleep at night knowing that no one will ever erect a statue of Trump,so our great-grandchildren’s weekends will be free to pursue more peaceful activities.

Ima Dumb Baker,
We finally agree on something traitors need to be hung or shot. Let’s start with some that are still alive
John Effin Kerry, Hanoi Jane Fonda, Hillary Rotten Clinton, Jorge Soros. Lincoln didn’t know this bunch of jerks but he might has spared them the hangman’s noose if the had surrendered honorably at the end of the war, and pledged allegiance to the country, something this ugly 4 could never do.

1. Prior to engaging in war the Confederate states succeeded from the Union and its Constitution, making your treason argument quite lame.

2. How is it that you, living 150 years after the fact, know better what the Confederate leaders deserved postwar than those who lived, led, and suffered through the Civil War?

3. Who are the “privileged white folks” against whom you rail? Is every white person who lives in the South rich and spoiled or are you just working really hard to reveal your stupidity? If the former, provide the evidence. If the latter, well, you didn’t really need to put in that much effort.

4. Which Native Americans do you nominate for the march, those that are full-blooded, half, one-quarter, one-sixteeth? What about those millions of southerners who have both Native American and Confederate ancestry? Should they hit themselves with the bats, torch their own homes, or just forget the whole thing and get drunk?

5. That you can sleep at night comforted by the knowledge of something that is unknowable means you have much in common with schizophrenics.

Ima, Thanks for prompting me to research treason. Turns out that the right of succession was explicitly accepted when the constitution was formed in 1787 and during ratification debates. Succession was subsequently reaffirmed multiple times by James Madison, after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and just a few years before the civil war – i.e., you can support California’s succession without fear of treason.

Note that freed blacks in in slave states owned slaves – 53% in Charleston SC per historical documents. Are they considered racists too?

You left out the rest of the clause. Here’s the entire sentence from the Constitution, verbatim:

Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

When Jane Fonda traveled to North Viet Nam in violation of federal law and posed for propaganda photos with NVA soldiers and the anti-aircraft artillery weapons being used against American pilots, would you say she was giving aid and comfort to the enemy?

OK folks, stay tuned for either the sound of crickets on a warm summer night…

…or for some furious liberal tap-dancing, larded with the usual name-calling. ☺

America – No statues for traitors,no place for haters,or feeble-minded,conspiracy embracing race-baiters like SJOUTSIDETHEBUBBLE. You’re nothing (repeat nothing) more than a alt-right embracer of & apologist for everything that is wrong in America today. No one wants to purge Confederate history from our children’s textbooks (all though I’m sure you’d all like to “white wash” it) as it’s a testament to every vile thing that the secessionists embraced. It’s time that the descendants of Confederate traitors finally conceded that they were on the losing side & quit waving the “Stars & Bars” like it’s something to be proud of (it’s not). The South isn’t rising again & these embarrassing mobs of mouth-breathers couldn’t get “it” up with a crane. They were on the wrong side of history then & you intolerant bigots are certainly on the wrong side of history now. You cuckolds are just angry because the truth is that while all men are created equal,you’re afraid that your wives & daughters will run off with those who are actually much better endowed than you !

Good Idea waxhead,
Now if we can get democrats to stop trying to purge Donald Trump out of the history books we might get along for the next 7 1/2 years. This is nothing more than another thinly disguised plot to overthrow a sitting president by the left , as such should be considered treason!
Round them up!

I suppose you think that statue of Lenin in New York City should remain right where it is, amirite?

And the other Lenin statues in Seattle and in Los Angeles are A-OK with you, too (but if not, please link to any previous comments where you objected to the mass murderer’s statues in American cities.)

While we’re discussing historical monuments, how is destroying a statue of Robert E. Lee any different than the Taliban destroying the Buddah statues in Afghanistan? http://tiny.cc/v6u7my

Take your time. It’s often difficult to express the dialectic to the proletariat masses…

Forcing Americans to go to schools that honor traitors like Robert E. Lee is act of malice. Would you have the children of Jews and World War 2 vets go to Adolph HItler High? The Confederates were a disease upon our country that should have been completely eradicated after the war, but Jim Crow lasted another 100 + years and still exists is some places. Would you deny that simple truth?

Remove all memorials and names of slave owners? FDR due to Japanese internment? Those that committed war crimes? Those that discriminated against women? Those that committed adultery? Destroy the Fallon statue because the former SJ mayor was unkind to Mexicans? Just wondering when we can declare victory.

“Cabinet heads appointed by President Wilson re-segregated restrooms and cafeterias in their buildings. During Wilson’s presidency, the film The Birth of a Nation (1915) became the first motion picture to be in screened in the White House.[287] The film, while revolutionary in its cinematic technique, glorified the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed blacks as uncouth and uncivilized. After seeing the film, Wilson felt betrayed by his old friend Thomas Dixon Jr., who wrote two books the movie was based on, and did not like or endorse the film; he tried to stop its showing during the World War.[288] Biographer Cooper rejects the claim first made in 1937 by a magazine writer who said that Wilson remarked: “It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true”; an eye witness reports that Wilson said nothing.[289][290] During Wilson’s term, segregation was ordered in the Washington offices of the Navy, the Treasury, and the Postmaster General. Then suddenly, photographs became required for all new federal job applicants. After black leaders pressed him, President Wilson explained he was trying to “reduce friction,” and that he “sincerely believe[d] it to be in their interest.”

“Deny that simple truth?” Compound qualifier followed by Yes/No would have to be answered YES per formal logic rules. But assuming you meant Jim Crow Laws v. Jim Crow (and its different meanings), where do they still exist in the US?

Please detail who & how “The Confederates … should have been completely eradicated after the war” – Are Confederates only those that fought? Those that lived in slave states? Other? Eradication by mass execution? By forced sterilization? By invoking Devine retribution? By other (please explain)?

Robert E. Lee was a “traitor” for one reason, and for one reason only: he ended up on the losing side.

But some holier-than-thou commenters here presume that they would never have fought for the South in the Civil War. heh In reality, they’re just self-deluded pretend heroes who don’t understand human nature. They actually believe that if they had been raised in the deep south in the early 1800’s, that they would have stood up against their family, their friends, and their community. They want readers to believe their preposterous moral daydreams, in which they sneak north and help rescue the slaves from the evil General Lee.

But on the eve of hostilities (and remmber, it takes two to tango), both the North and the South courted Lee. Both wanted him as their Commander-in-Chief. In the event, Lee chose the South for a perfectly valid reason: there was nothing in the Constitution or federal law that made seceding illegal. In fact, Massachussets (IIRC) had come close to leaving the United States a generation before the Civil War. But since it was over an economic issue and not over the highly emotional issue of slavery, no one cared.

This insane, over the top emo-response to a statue is amusing. I can think of no credible reason to label others here with truly vile, reprehensible names, or to make preposterous, outlandish, and absolutely untrue accusations about people who simply disagree. But that’s what happens when one side has no credible arguments, when they refuse to argue based on verifiable facts—and when they have no moral compass.

They’re just projecting their own faults onto people they hate, for no good reason. They’re trying mightily to shift their own culpability onto those they disagree with, but in doing so they become a parody of everything they hate in themselves. Racism, for example.

They should be cautious about their hate speech, because the courts frown on “fighting words”—and if one commenter’s comments aren’t filled with fighting words, then I’d like someone to link to more vile comments.

They appear to be trying to ignite Civil War 2.0 against their perceived enemies. But if one-tenth of their accusations had credible evidence, the folks they’re hating on would have already been charged with multiple felonies, and those cases would have been adjudicated by now. But the fact that NO court cases have ever been filed against the patient folks on the recieving end of their name-calling is extremely strong evidence that the haters have simply blown a gasket.

OTOH, it’s amusing to watch one side get so spun up over a statue. They don’t see what’s obvious to the most casual observer: the haters are being used by people who control their puppet strings from behind the scenes. Naturally, they will deny that they’re being spun up by manipulators. But there is a mountain of evidence, if they’d simply open their minds. Fat chance of that.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now. The Democratic Party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in our leadership and throughout the staff at the highest levels from the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC.

Like the reprehensible name-callers here, the Democrat Party is infested with actual racists who are religiously following Saul Alinsky’s dictum:

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.

Even the non-whites in the Democrat Party are open about their racism. But I’d caution them to find out about how that worked out for a guy named Robespierre a while back. But from the historically ignorant comments here concerning the Civil War, it’s questionable whether some folks even know who that old timey guy was. If a word to the wise is sufficient, that cautionary tale is wanting on this thread.

So instead, here’s some really excellent advice for everyone reading this, on both sides:

“Being around other cultures made him uneasy, he told KQED.” That’s called being a coward. People of various skin tones or cultural/religious identifiers spend most of their time in the world being different. Grown ups learn skills to built bridges where possible, and grown ups know that much of what we do is uncomfortable. ‘Feel your fear and do it anyway’. It also makes us able to relate, have empathy & compassion instead of fearing, bullying and marginalizing anyone ‘other’. He made the wrong choice & put him on the wrong path.

I find it unbelievable that the only picture you could find for your long-winded and seemingly fake article, included a background, autographed picture our President Donald Trump from May of 2014. You could find no other picture of Alt-right Nathan to satisfy your agenda. I assume that this picture satisfied your deceitful liberal agenda, slam Trump without actually mentioning his name and the snowflakes who read this will make your connection!

Note that most of these anonymous comments come from a handful of despicable bigots attempting to defend the indefensible actions of other despicable bigots. Now we know why these bigots hide behind their pseudonyms – they don’t need to wear those uncomfortable hoods while they’re typing. They’re plenty brave spewing their hateful propaganda on line,but too timid & ashamed to actually show their faces in public while doing so ! The Confederates were losers,these cowards are losers & these bigots they champion are losers too. Be a winner,not a loser ! Be a lover,not a hater ! Condemn hatred today !

Love the ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, they’re all too common and, on this particular comment string, it’s illustrative that virtually all of the ad hominem attacks are coming from the liberal side of the debate.

It’s OK then when Hannity & Limbaugh & their disciples say nasty things & voice their biased opinions as if they were facts,but when a liberal has the audacity to stoop to their level in response you right-wingers get all butt hurt ? Hypocrites ! If you are in fact a police officer,you’re another prime example of why Americans have less respect for the law & those who enforce it everyday. Tell me did you lie on the witness stand,plant evidence on an innocent person or physically assault a member of a minority group today,or was it your day off ? Go eat a doughnut !

I’m a police officer, and every day people thank me for what I do and tell me how much they appreciate the police. This happens more often now than at any other time in my more than 20 years at this job. You are clearly just as hate-filled and on the fringe as any crazy white supremacist. That you apparently consider yourself morally superior to them only reveals your delusional hypocrisy.

To exactly what nasty things and biased opinions do you refer. And how did they become a part of the conversation. When has ‘stooping to their level’ by anyone ever resulted in a desirable outcome? And what, exactly, have I said that impugns my service record, integrity, or rationality? And, how is it that my service record has anything to do with the issue at hand, which is the violence which occurred in Charlottesville and the actions of the bad actors involved in that incident? How is it that you feel entitled to make unfounded accusations about my service record based on my comments about the incident in question and about the lack of rationality and civility in debate here (and, by extension, elsewhere).

Ima Dumb Baker,
I guess you’re not afraid of having your tires slashed, paint thrown on your house, your dog poisoned
by your local KKK and department of Nazis which says a lot about about how fearful you are of the common right.
Where did we learn to say nasty things about liberals? Please enjoy my hypocrisy, we had great teachers like you, and in government schools that taught us to challenge authority. Then we watched SNL, David Letterman, Kolber Nasty Pelosi and the View.